New York Mets To Host "Tech On Deck" June 24 At Citi Field

NYC's Hottest Technology Companies Featured on Pre-Game Panel Discussing Big Data in Baseball and Business as Silicon Alley Battles Silicon Valley on the Field
(June 10, 2014)

NEW YORK, June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --Big Data is much more than a buzzword. It's the tool that supports so much rapid growth in the tech industry, revealing new possibilities and opening up new markets. It's also a key driver in baseball: known popularly as Moneyball. This statistical approach to winning more games has transformed America's pastime, leveling the playing field and making the game more interesting. On June 24, the New York Mets, before facing the Oakland A's, will host a panel discussion featuring some of the city's most prominent technology companies to discuss how data and digital drives both business and baseball.

Produced in collaboration with the communications boutique Thunder11, the panel will feature Russ D'Souza, co-founder of SeatGeek, the web's largest event ticket search engine; Michael Flowers, inaugural Urban Science Fellow at New York University (NYU), formerly New York City's first Chief Analytics Officer; Jeffrey Kraut, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Informatics at North Shore-LIJ Health System; Kirk McDonald, President of programmatic ad company PubMatic and former President of Digital at Time Inc.; Vib Prasad, Senior Vice President at MasterCard and Group Head of Emerging Payments; Elie Seidman, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Atlantic and the former CEO and co-founder of Oyster; Dan Wawrzonek, Senior Manager of Projects and Information Technology at Major League Baseball. The panel will be moderated by Adam Penenberg, an Editor of PandoDaily and Professor of Journalism at NYU.

Specially designated buses and cars will collect fans from various locations in downtown Manhattan and drive them to Citi Field. After the Meetup, which will begin at 5:45 p.m., attendees will be invited to the ballpark's Excelsior Level to watch the Mets play the Oakland A's, the original innovators of the Moneyball method, at 7:10 p.m. in a match of Silicon Alley versus Silicon Valley. Tickets, which include transportation and admission to the panel discussion and game, are $75.

"Throughout the course of baseball history, the game has always been about the numbershome runs, RBIs, wins, ERA, etc.," said Dan Wawrzonek, Senior Manager of Projects and Information Technology at Major League Baseball (MLB). "Through the evolution of technology, Major League Baseball is now able to provide a whole new set of data and tools for our Clubs to evaluate their players and manage their careers. I'm so glad the NYC tech community is coming to Citi Field to get a first-hand look at all we're doing."

"As we have the privilege to work with some of the city's tech innovators, we know how much the industry values its ability to use metrics to maximize its efficiency and drive growth," said Thunder11's President Marco Greenberg. "Baseball has similar goals and methods, and we think the Mets are natural partners for New York's vibrant, curious, and playful tech community."

About Thunder11: Thunder11 is a strategic communications boutique based on the Upper West Side of New York City. We excel at conceiving, designing, and executing multi-layered campaigns that utilize every platformfrom social networks to traditional media outletsto help our clients tell their stories better, to a larger and more relevant audience, and with greater impact. www.thunder11.com